GRIPCOAT® Direct

GRIPCOAT® Direct meets a wide range of requirements in friction enhancing functional areas. For the first time, it is possible to partially and economically apply hard particles (industrial diamonds) directly to components. The automatic, flexible coating can be adapted to your special industrial requirements and does not use wet-chemical processes.

Your top benefits at a glance

GRIPCOAT® Direct opens new possibilities for developers and producers in the automotive industry:

Cost-cutting process that can be adapted to special requirements and uses no wet chemicals

Simpler and faster assembly since additional friction enhancing components are no longer needed

Solvent-free and environmentally friendly

Friction connections replace form-fitting and adhesive bonds

Can be repetitively assembled

Miba is your reliable and innovative partner. We work together with you to adapt GRIPCOAT® Direct so that the friction enhancing coating meets your requirements and needs. We provide ideal conditions - from professional measurement technology such as 3D laser scans (in-house) to fast prototype development.

Since the usual additional components (friction discs) are no longer needed, the diamond coating also results in weight savings. The directly coated components are lighter and smaller, yet more efficient. The lower weight also reduces fuel consumption, indirectly reducing carbon emissions.

The hard particles (industrial diamonds) are applied at low temperatures. For the first time, even non-conductive substrates can be coated. This opens up innovative material combination opportunities for lightweight construction. The friction enhancement means that the components can be smaller.

Serial production

GRIPCOAT® Direct is an automated coating process for friction increase that is certified for the automotive industry. The industrial process is flexibly extensible, can be adapted to meet your requirements and features exceptionally high availability.

GRIPCOAT®Direct in detail

Friction enhancing coating: Diamond particles are applied to the components using atmospheric plasma. The industrial diamonds that are used are encased in nickel. This metallic casing ensures that the hard particles fuse with the substrate to form a permanent bond. The coating itself is also a low-temperature process. Even materials such as aluminum alloys, carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP), fiberglass reinforced plastic (FRP), magnesium and polymeric materials are suitable for this process. GRIPCOAT® Direct was developed, tested and qualified in close cooperation with the Chemnitz University of Technology.

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Hard particle size (industrial diamonds)

Microform bonding due to hard particles without additional retention matrix

High Performance for E-Mobility Drivetrains
Friction increasing direct coating for optimized power transmission

New hub motors rise challenges for developers. On the one hand is the integration of previously in the vehicle installed drive technology and power electronics additionally to conventional components of a wheel, such as wheel bearings and brakes. On the other hand is the space limited due to the wheel geometry. This requires to maximize the power density of classic frictional connections.

Frictional connections transmit the torque or power between contacting surfaces, with the friction coefficient as a performance-limiting parameter. The friction enhancing direct coating GRIPCOAT® allows an increase of it even with oiled surfaces of up to μ = 0.75. The coating is applied directly to one of the tensioned components. The elimination of additive components minimizes assembly costs and eliminates the risk of connection failure. The "micro-scale interlock" created during assembly ensures safe power transmission even under the most difficult conditions.

The precise coating of functional relevant sub-areas opens innovative technical possibilities with minimal material use and offers a decisive cost advantage. An increase of the friction coefficient up to 7 times higher allows to reduce the number of screws and/or the screw size and ultimately to optimize the power density in the E-Mobility drive.

At first, this seems contradictory, but lightweight construction can be achieved with high coefficients of friction leading to less carbon. In particular frictional connections are meant, which include screw connections.

On the one hand, the maximum torsional moment that can be transmitted is limited by the clamping force of the screws and the coefficient of friction between the components. On the other hand, carry-over parts strategies and the demand for higher performance weights limit the designer's influence. In this case, the only remaining solution is to maximize the coefficient of friction between the bolted components.

The GRIPCOAT® direct friction-increasing coating is applied directly to one of the components to be clamped. This minimizes the assembly costs since no additional components are used. Diamonds, which are applied to the surface by means of an adhesion promoter, create a so-called “microform lock” during assembly, which generates static friction values of up to µ = 0.75 even on oiled surfaces. The choice of the component to be coated has no influence on the performance (achievable friction values) and can be selected for practical reasons. The precise coating of partial areas creates cost-effective solutions.

Increasing the coefficient of static friction up to 7 times higher compared to an uncoated connection enables to reduce the number of screws and / or the size of the screws and ultimately the power density of the connections within the drive train can be increased and lightweight construction is realized.

About Miba

Miba is one of the leading strategic partners to the international engine and automotive industries, from providers in the fields of energy generation and transmission, in the oil and gas industry as well as in plant engineering. Our product portfolio includes sintered components, engine and industrial bearings, friction materials, power electronics components and coatings, used around the world in motor vehicles, trains, ships, aircraft, power plants, refineries, compressors and industrial pumps.